Tuesday afternoon news and notes — Alamo Bowl gets high ratings

There turned out to be a lot of reasons to want to watch the Alamo Bowl, and it turns out a lot of fans did just that.

The bowl just sent out this press release detailing how well-watched the game between Washington and Baylor was:

The national telecast of the 2011 Valero Alamo Bowl between Washington and Baylor earned a 5.1 rating and averaged 5.1 million households making it the No. 5 most-watched non-BCS bowl game in ESPN history.
The Valero Alamo Bowl now holds three of Top 5 positions on that list including the No. 1 and No. 2 most-watched non-BCS games in ESPN history with Michigan State vs. Texas Tech (1/2/2010) and Texas vs. Iowa (12/30/2006), respectively.

— Wes Bunting of the National Football Post is a little lukewarm on Chris Polk’s pro prospects.

— Tennessee coach Derek Dooley pretty much just wished the best for Justin Wilcox and Peter Sirmon on their way out the door when he talked to reporters today. Reading more and more of the Tennessee stuff, it’s pretty obvious what a tenuous situation that is, which had to have factored in somewhat to why Wilcox and Sirmon would have been amenable to leaving.